®ut  S^enominational 
Outlook 


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1904 


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OUR 
DENOMINATIONAL    OUTLOOK 


BY  AUGUSTUS  H.  STRONG,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

President  of  Rochester  Theological  Seminary 

ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  THE  GENERAL  DENOMINATIONAL  MEETING 
IN  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  BAPTIST  ANNIVERSARIES  AT  CLEVELAND, 
OHIO,  THURSDAY  MORNING,  MAY  19,  1004  :  :  :  :  : 


A  GREAT  division  of  the  Clirisiian  army  halts  to-day  to 
hold  a  council  of  war.  What  has  our  Baptist  host  done 
thus  far  ?  Where  do  v^e  now  stand  ?  What  is  our  pros- 
pect for  the  future?  These  three  questions,  I  take  it,  bring- 
out  the  meaning  of  my  subject.  I  have  been  asked  to  speak 
of  "Our  Denominational  Outlook."  I  appreciate  the  honor 
thus  conferred  upon  me.  I  appreciate  even  more  my  re- 
sponsibility. Only  an  inspired  prophet  could  adequately 
accomplish  the  task  committed  to  me,  for  St.  Bernard's 
Rcspice,  Aspicc,  Prospice — "Look  back,  look  around,  look 
forward,"  or  "View  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future" 
— seems  the  demand  of  the  hour.  And  I  am  no  prophet.  I 
can  only  remind  you  of  past  victories,  point  out  present 
dangers,  and  encourage  to  future  effort.  Even  in  this  at- 
tempt to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times,  I  need  your  sym- 
pathy and  your  prayers, 

I 


Yet  before  I  begin  to  tell  what  Baptists  have  done,  are 
doing,  and  need  to  do,  I  must  say  what  a  Baptist  i^    What 
The  is  the  essential  principle  for  which  we  contend?     I  main- 

Prindple  tain  that  we  stand  above  all  things  for  a  spiritual  church. 
a  Spiritual  'phg  church  is  the  body  of  Christ.  It  properly  consists  only 
of  those  who  have  been  renewed  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
are  joined  to  Christ  by  a  living  faith.  This  conception  of 
a  spiritual  church  carries  with  it  all  the  other  articles  of 
our  creed.  The  word  "spiritual"  suggests  the  deity  of 
Christ,  whose  omnipotent  Spirit  is  the  source  of  the  church's 
life.  The  word  "church"  suggests  the  outward  expression 
of  that  life  in  the  forms  appointed  by  Christ  himself.  Thus 
a  spiritual  church  implies  a  regenerate  church  membership 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  New  Testament  ordinances  and 
polity  on  the  other.  Dependence  on  the  Scriptures  as  the 
sufficient  and  only  standard  of  faith  and  practice,  and  in- 
dependence of  the  State  in  all  matters  of  doctrine  and  gov- 
ernment, while  they  are  not  the  central  truths,  are  yet 
logical  corollaries  of  the  Baptist  faith. 

It  is  the  vision  of  a  spiritual  church  which  Baptists  have 
ever  had  before  them.  Our  insistence  upon  the  proper  sub- 
jects and  the  proper  mode  of  baptism  is  not  the  essential, 
but  only  the  incidental,  of  our  belief.  Because  we  hold  that 
the  church  is  the  body  of  Christ,  we  cannot  accept  the 
statement  of  the  Westminster  Confession  that  the  church 
consists  of  those  who  "profess  the  true  religion,  together 
with  their  children,"  for  this  includes  in  the  church  those 
who  give  no  credible  evidence  of  regeneration.  Because  we 
hold  that  immersion  of  the  body  in  water  was  appointed 
by  our  Lord  as  the  sign  of  his  death  and  resurrection  and 
of  the  believer's  entrance  into  communion  therewith,  we 
cannot  regard  any  body  as  a  regularly  constituted  church  of 
Christ  which  disobeys  or  ignores  his  command  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  any  other  mode  of  baptism.  But  we  oppose 
infant  baptism,  only  because  it  admits  to  the  body  of  Christ 
those  who  do  not  belong  to  Christ;  and  we  oppose  sprink- 
ling or  pouring,  only  because  they  do  not  set   forth  that 


entrance  into  the  communion  of  Christ's  death  and  resur- 
rection which  is  essential  to  a  regularly  constituted 
Christian  church.  The  maintenance  of  a  spiritual  church 
furnishes  the  reason  for  our  existence  as  Baptists.  When 
we  cease  to  "follow  the  gleam,"  we  shall  die,  and  we  ought 
to  die. 

I.      THE     PAST 

The  church,  then,  is  the  body  of  Christ.  It  is  a  spiritual 
body,  rightfully  composed  only  of  those  who  have  been  re- 
generated by  Christ's  Spirit  and  who  have  expressed  this 
fact  of  regeneration  in  Christ's  appointed  way.  To  stand 
for  this  central  truth  in  heart  and  life  is  to  be  a  Baptist. 
We  can  now  look  backward  and  inquire  what  Baptists  have 
been  and  have  done.  I  can  deal  only,  in  a  large  way,  with 
the  facts  of  the  past,  and  details  must  be  left  to  others.  In 
general,  we  must  say  that  Baptist  history  began  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago.  Before  that  time  there  were 
doubtless  churches  which  held  to  some  of  the  principles  of 
the  Baptist  faith.  But  a  clear  recognition  and  confession  gaptist 
of  the  great  truth  that  the  church  is  to  be  composed  only  itgttatagi 
of  those  who  give  credible  evidence  of  regeneration  and 
who  have  expressed  their  faith  by  baptism  in  Christ's  ap- 
pointed way  is  not  furnished  in  modern  times  by  any  definite 
and  organized  body  before  the  year  1640.  About  that  time 
the  Particular  Baptists  of  London,  and  shortly  afterward 
the  General  Baptists  of  England,  began  to  maintain  that 
baptism  belongs  solely  to  believers  and  also  that  nothing  but 
immersion  is  baptism.  But  both  these  bodies  saw  in  the 
outward  ordinance  the  sign  of  a  living  union  with  Christ. 
They  wished  to  build  a  spiritual  church,  a  church  separate 
from  the  world,  a  church  after  the  pattern  shown  in  the 
mount,  a  church  spiritual  because  scriptural,  a  church  in 
which  Christ  could  dwell  because  it  had  been  constituted 
according  to  his  laws  as  they  are  laid  down  in  the  New 
Testament. 

Other  bodies  have  had  the  vision  of  a  spiritual  church, 

3 


but  they  have  not  been  obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision. 
The  New  Testament  gives  us  a  form  as  well  as  a  substance, 
an  outward  means  of  expression  as  well  as  an  inward  truth 
to  be  expressed.  Luther  saw  clearly  that  justification  was 
wholly  by  faith,  but  he  retained  infant  baptism  and  thereby 
admitted  to  the  church  those  who,  if  they  had  faith  as  he 
maintained,  certainly  could  give  no  evidence  of  it,  while 
he  put  the  government  of  the  church  into  the  hands  of 
princes  instead  of  intrusting  it  to  the  whole  congregation  of 
believers.  The  Puritan  Fathers  aimed  at  the  establishment 
of  Christ's  sole  authority,  but  they  identified  that  authority 
with  that  of  the  State,  and  it  needed  a  Roger  Williams  to 
teach  them  that  there  could  be  a  church  without  a  bishop 
and  a  state  without  a  king.  But  Baptists  first  in  modern 
times  furnish  the  example  of  a  spiritual  church  organized 
after  the  New  Testament  model,  self-governing  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  civil  power,  and  expressing  in  both  its 
ordinances  the  believer's  communion  with  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ. 

The  progress  of  Baptist  principles  has  shown  that  they 
are  not  only  adapted  to  human  nature,  but  are  also  pe- 
culiarly blessed  by  God.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any  other 
religious  denomination  has  grown  more  rapidly — only  our 
Methodist  brethren  can  claim  as  great  a  numerical  increase. 
And  this  comparison  teaches  us  that  not  simply  doctrine,  but 
life,  counts  in  the  rolling  up  of  numbers.  The  heroic  labor 
and  sacrifice  of  pioneers,  among  Methodists  and  Baptists 
alike,  were  prompted  by  a  vivid  experience  of  sin  and  of  re- 
demption ;  and  godly  living  gave  proof  that  this  inward 
experience  was  a  reality.  But  we  have  had  an  advantage 
even  over  Methodists,  in  that  we  could  always  point  for 
our  polity  to  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  or  to  Scripture  ex 
ample  and  precedent.  Where  we  have  kept  most  closely  to 
the  New  Testament  model,  we  have  prospered  most ;  de- 
partures from  it  have  been  followed  by  spiritual  and 
numerical  decline.  Hence  our  statistics  give  us  both  en- 
couragement and  warning. 

4 


In  1640  the  General  Baptists  of  England  claimed  over 
20,000  members,  and  there  were  possibly  half  that  number 
of  Particular  Baptists — say  a  total  of  30,000.  Macaulay  ^^} 
estimates  the  population  of  England  at  that  time  as  some- 
thing above  five  millions.  During  the  century  from  1640 
to  1740 — the  century  of  Charles  II.  and  the  Deists,  a  cen- 
tury of  both  ethical  and  religious  declension — Baptists  in 
Great  Britain  were  subject  to  bitter  persecution.  They 
did  not  greatly  increase  in  numbers,  though  such  Baptists 
as  John  Bunyan  in  spite  of  fines  and  imprisonment  con- 
fessed their  faith  and  opposed  a  barrier  to  the  growing 
corruption  of  the  times.  In  1740  they  probably  had  no 
more  than  50,000  members,  though  the  population  had  in- 
creased to  eight  or  nine  millions.  In  1840,  when  the  popu- 
tion  was  15,914,148,  the  Baptists  numbered  at  least  150,000 
— their  large  growth  due  to  the  Wesleyan  revival  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  the  missionary  impulse  of  William  Carey 
and  Andrew  Fuller  on  the  other.  In  1870,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  22,712,266  in  England  and  Wales,  Baptists  had 
increased  to  243,395..  In  the  decades  from  1870  to  1900, 
however,  the  numbers  have  been  295,035,  330,163.  365,678; 
an  increase  of  21  per  cent,  in  1880;  of  12  per  cent,  in  1890; 
and  of  10.7  per  cent,  in  1900;  while  it  is  only  at  the  rate 
of  6.2  per  cent,  a  decade,  for  the  three  years  from  1900  to 
1903.  In  1890  the  population  of  England  and  Wales  was 
29,082,585,  when  the  number  of  Baptists  in  Great  Britain 
was  330,163.  In  1900  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales  was  thirty-two  millions,  and  the  number  of  Baptists 
was  365,678.  In  1903  with  a  probable  population  of  forty 
millions.  Baptists  number  only  372,998.  The  average  rate 
of  increase  in  population  per  decade  in  Great  Britain  is 
13.86  per  cent,  for  eight  decades.*  Before  1880  Baptists  in 
Great  Britain  increased  much  faster  than  the  population. 
But  since  1880  there  has  been  a  rate  of  increase  slower  than 


*In  the  United  States  the  increase  of  population  has  varied  from  35.1  per  cent. 
(1800-1810)  to  20.7  per  cent.  (1890-1900).  The  average  per  decade  (1870—1900)  is  25,2 
per  cent. 

5 


that  of  the  population,  and  this  decline  has  gone  on  until 
the  14  per  cent,  increase  in  population  has  over  against  it 
a  Baptist  increase  of  only  a  trifle  over  6  per  cent.  Two 
facts  are  made  plain  by  these  English  statistics.  The  first 
is  that  times  of  religious  revival,  of  doctrinal  earnestness, 
and  of  missionary  enterprise,  are  marked  by  great  acces- 
sions to  our  numbers,  while  laxity  of  belief,  worldliness  of 
life,  and  indifference  to  missions  are  accompanied  by  nu- 
merical diminution.  The  second  fact  is  that  the  last  quar- 
ter-century has  witnessed  a  comparative  set-back,  in  which 
the  exceedingly  rapid  growth  of  the  preceding  century  has 
been  checked,  and  the  figures  indicate  some  deeply  working 
causes  of  decline. 
Home  What  is  true  of  the  Baptist  body  in  Great  Britain  is  also 

Statistics  t^rue  of  our  denomination  in  the  United  States.  Our  early 
rate  of  increase  was  astonishing,  but  in  later  years  it  has 
been  steadily  diminishing.  In  1784  we  are  credited  with 
only  35,000  members,  and  in  1800  with  only  100,000.  But 
by  1880,  the  number  had  reached  2,133,044;  by  1890, 
3,065,367;  by  1900,  4,181,686;  and  by  1904,  4,506,747  (es- 
timated). While  the  five  millions  (5,308,483)  of  population 
which  the  country  had  in  1800  have  increased  fifteen  fold 
(or  to  75,994,575),  the  number  of  Baptists  has  increased 
forty  fold  (or  to  4,181,686).  But  I  must  add  that  this 
great  increase  belongs  to  the  first  three-quarters  and  more 
exactly  to  the  first  nine  decades  of  the  past  century,  rather 
than  to  the  last  ten  to  twenty-five  years.  Or  to  speak 
more  specifically:  From  1800  to  1880  our  numbers  doubled 
in  every  twenty  years ;  and  in  the  single  decade  from  1 870 
to  1880  we  increased  74  per  cent.  (74,64;  population,  29.74). 
But  from  1880  to  1890  the  increase  was  but  43  per  cent. 
(43.70;  population  25,36)  ;  from  1890  to  1900  only  36  per 
cent.  (36.41;  population  21)  ;  and  from  1900  to  1904  we 
are  increasing  at  the  rate,  for  a  whole  decade,  of  only  19 
per  cent.  (19.44). 
Education-  Is  this  check  to  our  progress  only  a  temporary  eddy  in 
the  current,  which  can  be  attributed  to  the  diverting  in- 

6 


fluence  of  trade  and  war?  That  there  has  been  a  pro- 
gressive diminution  for  more  than  three  decades  seems  to 
indicate  some  more  radical  evil ;  and  v^e  are  summoned  to 
self-examination  with  regard  to  our  doctrinal  faithfulness 
and  our  practical  consecration.  I  would  not  too  hastily  im- 
pugn the  soundness  or  the  generosity  of  the  great  Baptist 
host  to  which  I  belong.  Two  encouraging  facts  may  be 
set  over  against  this  relative  slowness  of  increase  during  the 
past  thirty  years.  The  first  is  the  great  additions  that  have 
been  made  to  our  educational  equipment.  Whereas  in 
1880  the  total  property  and  endowments  of  our  Baptist 
Seminaries,  Universities,  Colleges  and  Academies  in  the 
United  States  amounted  to  only  $16,661,079,  and  in  1890 
to  $19,659,864,  they  amounted  in  1900  to  $39,434,392,  and 
in  1904  to  $51,158,368.  The  world  may  be  challenged  to 
show  a  like  rapidity  of  increase,  and  the  only  drawback  to 
our  claim  is  the  fact  that  so  large  a  part  of  this  increase  has 
been  due  to  the  liberality  of  a  single  giver. 

The  second  reason  for  encouragement  is  to  be  found  in  Missionary 
the  growing  interest  of  our  churches  in  the  foreign  field,  and  ^""" 
in  the  great  success  in  our  home  missionary  work.  In 
1840  the  receipts  of  our  Missionary  Union  were  $65,761, 
and  the  members  of  our  mission  churches  numbered  2,50a. 
In  1850,  we  gave  $87,537,  ^"^  ^^^  11,958  members;  in 
i860,  $i32,z|_26,  and  had  25,408  members;  in  1870,  $200,953, 
and  had  46,964  members;  in  1880,  $290,851,  and  had 
85,308  members ;  in  1890,  $410,974,  and  had  138,293  mem- 
bers;  in  1900,  $500,455,  and  had  206,746  members;  in  1904, 
$779,594,  and  had  226,058  members.  During  this  same 
period  the  work  of  Home  Missions  has  been  correspond- 
ingly prosecuted  and  prospered.  In  1850,  the  total  receipts 
of  our  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  were  only 
$26,443;  in  i860,  they  amounted  to  %S7^777''  i"  1870,  they 
were  $183,828;  in  1880,  they  were  $192,356,  but  in  1890, 
they  more  than  doubled,  being  $449,444 ;  in  1900,  they  rose 
to  $581,609;  in  1903,  they  again  rose  to  $614,223;  and  in 
1904,  they  are  $635,396.     Our  American  Baptist  Publica- 

7 


tion  Society  furnishes  an  exhibit  which  is  an  ahnost  exact 
parallel.  In  1850,  the  receipts  from  all  sources  were  $24,539, 
in  i860,  $66,556;  in  1870,  $304,999;  in  1880,  $349,564; 
ii)  1890,  $651,605;  in  1900,  $867,066;  and  in  1904,  $934,923. 
Our  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  were  organ- 
ized so  late  as  1871,  yet  their  aggregate  receipts  for  a  year, 
as  reported  in  our  last  Year  Book,  had  reached  $188,019; 
while  the  Women's  Home  Mission  Societies,  organized  only 
in  1877,  collected  and  expended  in  a  single  year  $134,612. 
A  great  new  force  was  called  into  effective  operation  when 
the  women  of  our  denomination  gave  themselves  to  this 
missionary  work.  And  so  we  may  believe  that  an  instru- 
ment of  equal  future  possibilities  was  raised  up  when  the 
Baptist  Young  People's  Union  of  America  was  constituted 
in  1 89 1.  That  over  $60,000  should  have  been  paid  into  its 
treasury  in  a  single  year,  when  the  Union  was  only  twelve 
years  old,  gives  great  promise  for  the  future. 

These  figures  prove  that,  in  some  respects  at  least,  we  have 
made  surprising  progress.  They  show  that  the  compara- 
tive apathy  in  church  extension  at  home  has  been  accom- 
panied by  remarkable  increase  in  our  educational  facilities, 
and  by  a  growth  both  in  home  and  in  foreign  missions  for 
which  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  parallel. 
Sectional  Our  gratulations  in  these  two  respects  need  to  be  tem- 
Gains  and  p  >j-g(^  by  the  unpleasing  consideration  that  the  growth 
v\'e  have  had  at  home  has  not  been  so  great  in  the  settled 
and  older  States  as  it  has  been  at  the  West  and  at  the  South. 
In  New  England,  for  example,  while  the  decade  from  1870 
to  1880  shows  an  increase  of  Baptists  of  16.65  pc^  cent,  as 
compared  with  an  increase  of  14.98  per  cent,  in  population, 
the  decade  1890  to  1900  shows  an  increase  of  Baptists  of 
14.54  per  cent,  with  an  increase  of  population  of  18.96  per 
cent. ;  and  the  last  three  years  have  shown  almost  no  in- 
crease at  all  of  Baptists,  or  only  at  the  rate  of  a  half  of  i 
per  cent,  (or  .56)  for  a  whole  decade.  In  the  Middle 
States  the  relative  increase  in  proportion  to  population  has 
been  better  kept  up,  being  25.96  per  cent,  to  19.37  popula- 

8 


tion  in  1880,  aiid  28.90  per  cent,  to  20.95  population  in  1900 ; 
yet  for  the  last  three  years  the  Baptist  increase  is  reduced  to 
a  rate  of  only  14.12  per  cent,  for  the  whole  decade.  It  is  in 
the  West  and  South  and  on  the  Pacific  Slope  that  we  have 
most  increased  in  numbers.  The  Western  States  show  in 
1880  Baptist  increase  of  52.04  per  cent.,  to  32.12  per  cent, 
in  population;  in  1900  Baptist  increase  30.08  per  cent.,  to 
population  17.58  per  cent.;  but  in  the  last  three  years  even 
here  our  rate  of  Baptist  increase  has  been  reduced  to  14.12 
per  cent,  for  a  whole  decade.  The  Southern  States  showed 
in  1880  an  increase  of  11 1.29  per  cent,  as  compared  with 
36.88  per  cent,  in  population,  and  in  1900  of  40.32  per  cent, 
as  compared  with  24.01  per  cent,  of  population,  while  in 
the  last  three  years  Baptist  increase  was  at  the  rate  of  only 
11.32  per  cent,  for  a  whole  decade.  The  Pacific  States 
have  shown  the  greatest  persistency  of  all.  In  1880,  their 
rate  was  1 15.15  per  cent.,  as  compared  with  78.46  per  cent, 
in  population ;  in  1900,  96.98  per  cent.,  as  compared  with 
35.13  per  cent,  in  population ;  while,  for  the  last  three  years, 
Baptist  increase  is  still  at  the  rate  of  48.05  per ,  cent,  per 
decade. 

In  short,  our  increase  has  been  greatest  in  the  newer 
and  less  cultivated  fields.  In  the  cities  we  have  not  grown 
so  rapidly  as  in  the  country,  and  in  New  York  City,  the 
metropolis  of  the  land,  where  it  would  seem  that  we  ought 
to  be  strongest,  our  churches  have  experienced  a  relative 
decline.  The  causes  for  this  state  of  things  are  partly  local. 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  have  shown  that  Baptists, 
with  proper  management  and  liberality,  can  stand  at  the 
front.  The  growth  of  population  at  the  West,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  foreign  immigration  at  the  East,  explain  to  some 
degree  the  fact  that  our  victories  are  more  and  more  to  be 
found  where  pioneer  and  missionary  work  is  done.  We 
are  encouraged  to  home  missionary  work,  as  we  are  en- 
couraged to  foreign  missionary  work,  when  we  see  that  in 
Nebraska  and  in  Oregon,  as  in  India  and  China,  the  seed 
sown  brings  forth  a  hundredfold,  while  it  brings  forth  only 

9 


tenfold  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  I  deny  that  we 
are  a  denomination  only  of  pioneers,  or  that  our  mission  is 
simply  to  the  unintelligent  or  to  the  poor.  If  we  have  the 
truth  of  God,  that  truth  should  have  greatest  power  where 
there  is  most  of  culture  and  wealth.  And  yet  we  seem  to 
be  prospering  far  away  from  our  centers  of  intelligence  and 
of  business  enterprise,  while  our  cause  makes  less  progress 
where  there  is  most  of  money  and  of  education.  Only  our 
long-range  guns  seem  to  be  hitting  their  mark. 
Foreign  I  would  not  be  unjust  to  our  Baptist  brotherhood,  and  I 
would  recognize  peculiar  features  of  the  situation  which 
to  some  extent  explain  the  slowness  of  our  recent  progress. 
In  New  England,  as  well  as  in  several  Western  and  North- 
ern States,  fully  two-fifths  of  the  population  is  of  foreign 
birth  or  of  foreign  parentage,  in  contrast  to  a  very  small 
per  cent,  of  this  element  fifty  or  seventy-five  years  ago.  The 
preponderating  foreign  element  in  our  great  cities,  where  it 
ranges  from  70  to  80  per  cent.,  must  also  be  remembered. 
This  constitutes  a  more  stony  ground  for  our  Baptist  seed- 
sowing  than  that  with  which  the  fathers  had  to  deal.  If 
we  could  compare  our  Baptist  growth  with  that  of  the 
native  American  population,  the  showing  would  without 
doubt  be  more  favorable.  At  the  South,  moreover,  where 
apparently  Baptist  growth  has  been  phenomenal,  we  ought 
in  all  fairness  to  take  separate  account  of  the  colored  Bap- 
tists, who  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  cut  a  very  small  figure 
in  the  religious  statistics  of  the  country,  but  who  increased 
in  numbers  from  four  hundred  thousand  in  1865  to  nearly 
two  millions  in  1894.  It  is  also  true  that  while  in  some  of 
the  extreme  Western  States  our  increase  on  the  percentage 
basis  has  been  very  large,  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  twenty 
years  ago  the  Baptists  in  the  Territory  of  Washington  and 
in  some  other  Territories  were  very  few.  The  man  who 
was  blessed  with  a  second  son  was  technically  right,  but 
he  gave  a  wrong  impression,  when  he  declared  that  his 
family  had  increased  at  the  rate  of  50  per  cent,  within  a 
year.    In  some  of  the  Western  States  our  progress  has  been 

10 


as  slow  and  as  difficult  as  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States. 
These  considerations  do  much  to  equalize  our  diversities. 
Yet  they  cannot  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  our  general  rate 
of  progress  has  been  gradually  diminishing  for  at  least 
thirty  years. 

It  may  be  argued  that  other  denominations  are  as  badly  ^*^"  , 
off  as  we ;  that  the  last  fifty  years  have  been  a  period  of  aations 
general  religious  decline;  that  we  are  not  responsible  for 
the  external  conditions  which  have  hindered  and  checked 
our  progress.  And  it  is  true  that,  while  the  Congregational 
increase  in  the  United  States  from  1870  to  1893  has  been 
only  91.67  per  cent.;  the  Presbyterian  increase  133.74  per 
cent. ;  the  Methodist  increase  147.49  per  cent. ;  and  the 
Disciple  increase  248.81  per  cent. ;  our  Baptist  increase  has 
been  greater  than  any  of  these,  namely,  254.38  per  cent. 
If  however,  we  take  into  account  only  our  churches  at  the 
North,  excluding  the  South  and  the  Pacific  Coast,  our  rate 
of  increase  from  1870  to  1893  has  been  only  128  per  cent.; 
whicfi  is  less  than  that  of  the  Presbyterians,  the  Methodists 
or  the  Disciples,  and  is  only  greater  than  that  of  the  Con- 
gregationalists.  And  even  if  we  include  the  South  in  our 
estimate  and  claim  254.38  per  cent,  of  increase,  we  find  that 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  outstripped  us,  for 
its  increase  from  1870  to  1903  has  been  319.28  per  cent. 
The  Disciples  and  the  Episcopalians  have  grown  most 
rapidly,  and  we  have  doubtless  given  many  of  our  members 
to  each  of  them.  And  what  right  have  we  to  take  comfort 
from  the  thought  that  we  have  prospered  more  than  some 
of  the  others,  when  we  remember  that  times  of  general 
religious  depression  were  to  our  fathers  a  glorious  oppor- 
tunity, and  that  Baptist  zeal  shone  out  brightest  when  con- 
fronted with  indifference  and  opposition? 

We  do  not  get  the  case  properly  before  us  until  we  re-  Vast 
member  the  vast  increase  of  our  material  resources  during  ^"^^^ 
the  half  century  that  is  past.    I  suppose  it  is  within  reason-  Resources 
able  limits  to  say  that  Baptists  during  that  period  have 
accumulated  many  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars.     The 

II 


denomination  that  was  once  poor  has  become  rich  and  in- 
creased in  goods.  We  have  probably  a  hundred  times  the 
financial  means  that  we  possessed  fifty  years  ago.  But  our 
giving  has  not  increased  in  any  such  proportion.  Instead  of 
being  multipHed  by  a  hundred,  our  gifts  have  hardly  been 
multiplied  by  ten.  God  has  bestowed  a  blessing  upon  these 
gifts  far  beyond  our  faith  or  our  desert.  He  seems  to  have 
been  pointing  us  to  his  work  in  the  Far  West  and  the  Far 
East,  to  stir  up  more  vigorous  effort  right  at  home.  Yet 
we  have  suffered  this  work  at  home  to  languish,  and  at 
the  present  rate  of  comparative  decrease,  it  will  be  but  a 
question  of  time  when  the  sources  of  supply  will  be  dried  up 
and  the  work  abroad  will  be  hindered  or  stopped.  We 
who  have  been  floating  with  the  stream  do  not  appreciate 
how  rapidly  we  are  drifting.  Our  missionaries  who  return 
to  America  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years  perceive,  as  we 
do  not,  that  there  is  a  change  of  position.  We  do  not  stand 
where  we  once  stood.  The  old  zeal  for  conversions  is 
dying  out.  Our  churches  are  less  careful  in  their  examina- 
tion of  applicants  for  admission  to  their  membership.  We 
do  not  realize  as  we  should  that  men  are  lost,  and  that 
only  Christ  can  save  them. 


II.      THE     PRESENT 

So  the  review  of  the  past  leads  me  to  questions  of  the 

0     tion  prt^sent.     Do  we  Baptists  still  hold  to  the  belief  and  prac- 

cf  the      tice  of  the  fathers,  or  have  we  departed  from  the  faith  and 

Vtaaa    turned   aside  to  a  science  that   is   falsely   so  called?     My 

reply  must  be  a  qualified  reply.     I  maintain  that  the  great 

Baptist  body  still  holds  to  Jesus  Christ  its  head ;  still  stands 

for  his  deity  and  his  atonement ;  still  insists  that  the  church 

shall  be  composed  of  regenerate  persons ;  still  claims  that 

the  constitution  and  ordinances  of  the  church  shall  visibly 

picture   and    express    the   inward    union   of   believers    with 

their  divine  Lord.      But  I  hold  at  the  same  time  that  there 


is  progress  in  our  Baptist  apprehension  of  the  truth ;  that 
it  is  duty  to  accept  the  new  light  that  true  science  gives ; 
that  the  formulas  of  the  past  need  some  revision  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  present  time;  yes,  that  the 
impulse  to  this  revision  is  itself  divine,  an  impulse  from 
Christ  himself,  whose  Spirit  is  promised  to  guide  us 
into  all  the  truth.  It  is  our  advantage  that  we  have  no 
authoritative  creed  to  define  our  theology  once  for  all ;  and 
this  ensures  us  freedom  and  right  of  development.  A  creed 
expresses  one  age  and  set  of  thought;  the  Bible  is  of  many 
ages,  minds,  purposes.  Accepting  it  as  authority,  we  still 
afSfirm  the  duty  of  bringing  out  of  that  treasure  things  new, 
as  well  as  old.  A  Baptist  theology  must  continually  seek 
the  truth,  must  keep  abreast  of  public  intelligence,  and  must 
be  a  progressive  theology.  The  guarantee  that  it  will  not 
ultimately  run  to  wild  extremes  is  furnished  in  the  total 
teaching  of  the  written  word,  and  in  the  continued  intiaencc 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  chief  source  of  change  and  improvement  in  our  thcologfca; 
modern  thought  has  been  the  discovery  of  the  immanence  Chacg:es 
of  God  in  his  universe.  Yet  this  is  not  so  much  a  new  doc- 
trine, as  it  is  the  new  recognition  of  an  old  one.  The  ancient 
Hebrews  knew  of  it,  and  it  was  taught  by  Paul  and  John. 
But  deism  had  obscured  it.  God  was  thought  to  be  far 
away,  in  some  distant  heaven.  We  have  learned  that  he  is 
near ;  that  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being ; 
that  he  is  the  soul  of  our  soul,  and  the  life  of  our  life.  We 
take  seriously  the  omnipresence  of  God ;  we  recognize  in 
Christ  the  only  Revealer  of  God ;  we  believe  his  assurance 
that  he  is  with  us  alway  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  idea  of  Christ  in  the  universe  and  Christ  in  humanity  is 
gradually  transforming  our  theology  and  bringing  it  into 
closer  accord  with  the  New  Testament.  There  is  no  better 
illustration  of  the  wrong  view  than  is  found  in  John  Bun- 
yan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.  In  that  immortal  work,  Christian 
does  not  have  Christ  with  him  on  his  journey ;  there  is  no 
divine  companionship  in  his  toils  and  struggles;  he  hopes 

13 


to  meet  his  Savior  only  after  he  has  crossed  the  flood. 
Nature,  in  a  similar  manner,  was  conceived  of  as  under  the 
dominion  of  the  evil  one ;  since  the  world  is  ruled  by  Satan, 
and  not  by  Christ,  all  natural  processes  and  even  all  natural 
beauty — literature,  art,  and  all  the  joy  of  life — were  re- 
garded as  hostile  to  Christ. 

But  Christ  is  greater  than  the  Puritan  theology  thought. 
^^^  He  is  the  acting  God;  the  Creator,  Upholder,  Governor  of 
the  Universe ;  the  Life  of  nature  and  of  humanity.  Law  is 
only  the  method  of  his  regular  working;  gravitation  and 
evolution  are  only  the  habits  of  Christ.  We  need  not  fear 
either  science  or  philosophy,  for  these  are  men's  efforts  to 
interpret  the  ways  of  him  to  whom  all  authority  is  given  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.  The  historical  Christ  only  "shows  the 
hid  heart  beneath  creation  beating" ;  and  "he  that  hath  seen 
him  hath  seen  the  Father."  So  we  have  the  key  with  which< 
to  unlock  the  chief  secrets  of  the  world ;  we  have  a  divine 
Companion  and  Friend  to  accompany  our  earthly  pilgrim- 
age; we  have  a  living  Interpreter  of  Scripture  and  of  his- 
tory. And,  of  all  denominations  of  Christians,  Baptists 
should  be  most  ready  to  concede  the  possibility  of  a  pro- 
gressive theology,  since  Baptists  from  the  beginning  have 
believed  in  a  spiritual  church,  in  which  Christ  dwells  and 
reigns. 

Think  now  of  the  light  which  this  conception  of  an  im- 
manent God  and  an  omnipresent  Christ  throws  upon  the 
doctrines  of  sin,  of  the  atonement,  of  the  church,  and  of 
the  Scriptures.  As  we  note  the  changes  that  have  come 
Old  and  over  our  ways  of  thinking,  we  may  see  exaggerations  which 
New  View  j^^^g  weakened  our  faith  and  have  checked  our  progress. 
Take  for  example  the  old  and  the  new  view  as  to  sin.  Our 
fathers  believed  in  total  depravity,  and  we  agree  with  them 
that  man  naturally  is  devoid  of  love  to  God  and  that  every 
faculty  is  weakened,  disordered  and  corrupted  by  the  selfish 
bent  of  his  will.  They  held  to  original  sin.  The  selfish  bent 
of  man's  will  can  be  traced  back  to  the  apostacy  of  our  first 
parents ;  and,  on  account  of  that  departure  of  the  race  from 

14 


God,  all  men  are  by  nature  children  of  wrath.  And  all 
this  is  true,  if  it  is  regarded  as  a  statement  of  the  facts,  apart 
from  their  relation  to  Christ.  But  our  fathers  did  not  see, 
as  we  do,  that  man's  relation  to  Christ  antedated  the  Fall 
and  constituted  an  underlying  and  modifying  condition  of 
man's  life.  Humanity  was  naturally  in  Christ,  in  whom  all 
things  were  created  and  in  whom  they  all  consist.  Even 
man's  sin  did  not  prevent  Christ  from  still  working  in  him 
to  counteract  the  evil  and  to  suggest  the  good.  There 
was  an  internal,  as  well  as  an  external,  preparation  for 
man's  redemption.  In  this  sense,  of  a  divine  principle  in 
man  striving  against  the  selfish  and  godless  will,  there 
was  a  total  redemption,  over  against  man's  total  depravity ; 
and  an  original  grace,  that  was  even  more  powerful  than 
original  sin.  i 

The  great  Baptist  body  has  become  conscious  that  total 
depravity  alone  is  not  a  sufficient  or  proper  expression  of 
the  truth ;  and  the  phrase  has  been  outgrown.  It  has  been 
felt  that  the  old  view  of  sin  did  not  take  account  of  the 
generous  and  noble  aspirations,  the  unselfish  efforts,  the 
strivings  after  God,  of  even  unregenerate  men.  For  this 
reason  there  has  been  less  preaching  about  sin,  and  less 
conviction  as  to  its  guilt  and  condemnation.  The  good  im- 
pulses of  men  outside  the  Oiristian  pale  have  been  often 
credited  to  human  nature,  when  they  should  have  been 
credited  to  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  Christ.  I  make  no  doubt 
that  one  of  the  radical  weaknesses  of  our  denomination  at 
this  present  time  is  its  more  superficial  view  of  sin.  With- 
out some  sense  of  sin's  guilt  and  condemnation,  we  cannot 
feel  our  need  of  redemption.  John  the  Baptist  must  go  be- 
fore Christ ;  the  law  must  prepare  the  way  for  the  gospel. 
My  belief  is  that  the  new  apprehension  of  Christ's  relation 
to  the  race  will  enable  us  to  declare,  as  never  before,  the 
lost  condition  of  the  sinner ;  while  at  the  same  time  we  show 
him  that  Christ  is  with  him  and  in  him  to  save.  This  pres- 
ence in  every  man  of  a  power  not  his  own  that  works  for 
righteousness  is  a  very  different  doctrine  from  that  "divinity 

15 


of  man"  which  is  so  often  preached.  The  divinity  is  not  the 
divinity  of  man,  but  the  divinity  of  Christ.  And  the  power 
that  works  for  righteousness  is  not  the  power  of  man,  but 
the  power  of  Christ.  It  is  a  power  whose  warning,  invit- 
ing, persuading  influence  renders  only  more  marked  and 
dreadful  the  evil  will  which  hampers  and  resists  it.  De- 
pravity is  all  the  worse,  when  we  recognize  in  it  the  con- 
stant antagonist  of  an  ever-present,  all-holy,  and  all-loving 
Redeemer. 
The  ^^    must    acknowledge    also    that    our    conceptions    of 

Atonement  Christ's  atonement  have  suffered  some  change.  Yet  that 
change  has  been  in  the  nature  of  a  more  fundamental  un- 
derstanding of  the  meaning  of  atonement,  and  its  necessity 
as  a  law  of  universal  life.  To  our  fathers  the  atonement 
was  a  mere  historical  fact,  a  sacrifice  offered  in  a  few  brief 
Iiours  upon  the  Cross,  It  was  a  literal  substitution  of  Christ's 
suffering  for  ours,  the  payment  of  our  debt  by  another,  and 
upon  the  ground  of  that  payment  we  are  permitted  to  go 
free.  Those  sufferings  were  soon  over,  and  the  hymn 
"Love's  Redeeming  Work  is  Done,"  expressed  the  believer's 
joy  in  a  finished  redemption.  And  all  this  is  true.  But  it 
is  only  a  part  of  the  truth.  The  atonement,  like  every 
other  doctrine  of  Christianity,  is  a  fact  of  life ;  and  such 
facts  of  life  cannot  be  crowded  into  our  definitions,  because 
they  are  greater  than  any  definitions  that  we  can  frame.  The 
atonement  is  a  substitution,  in  that  another  has  done  for  us 
what  we  ought  to  have  done  but  could  not  do,  and  has  suf- 
fered for  us  what  we  deserved  to  suffer  but  could  not  suf- 
fer without  loss  of  holiness  and  happiness  forever  and  ever. 
But  Christ's  doing  and  suffering  is  not  that  of  one  external 
and  foreign  to  us.  He  is  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our 
ilesh ;  the  bearer  of  our  humanity ;  yes,  the  very  life  of  the 
race.  The  life  that  he  lived  in  Palestine  and  the  death  that 
he  endured  on  Calvary  were  the  revelation  of  a  union  with 
mankind  which  antedated  the  Fall,  Being  thus  joined  to 
us  from  the  begininng,  he  has  suffered  in  all  human  sin ; 
in  all  our  affliction  he  has  been  afflicted ;  so  that  the  Psalmist 

i6 


can  say:  "Blessed  be  God,  who  daily  beareth  our  burden, 
even  the  God  of  our  salvation." 

So  we  add  to  the  idea  of  subslitntion  the  idea  of  sharing;  Sobstita 
and  see  in  the  Cross,  not  so  much  the  atonement  itself,  as  t^o"  ^^ 

Sharing 

the  revelation  of  the  atonement.  The  sufferings  of  Christ 
take  deeper  hold  upon  us  when  we  see  in  them  the  expres- 
sion of  the  two  great  truths :  that  holiness  must  make  pen- 
alty to  follow  sin ;  and  that  love  must  share  that  penalty  with 
the  transgressor.  And  we  are  subject  to  that  same  law  of 
life.  We  who  enter  into  fellowship  with  our  Lord  fill  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  for  his 
body's  sake  which  is  the  church ;  and  the  Christian  church 
can  reign  with  Christ  only  as  it  partakes  in  his  suffering. 
The  atonement  becomes  a  model  and  stimulus  to  self- 
sacrifice,  and  a  test  of  Christian  character.  But  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  the  subjective  effect  of  Christ's  sacrifice  may 
absorb  the  attention,  to  the  exclusion  of  its  ground  and 
cause.  The  moral  influence  of  the  atonement  has  taken 
deep  hold  upon  our  minds,  and  we  are  in  danger  of  forget- 
ting that  it  is  the  holiness  of  God,  and  not  the  salvation  of 
men,  that  primarily  requires  it.  When  sharing  excludes 
substitution;  when  reconciliation  of  man  to  God  excludes 
reconciliation  of  God  to  man ;  when  the  only  peace  secured 
is  peace  in  the  sinner's  heart  and  no  thought  is  given  to 
that  peace  with  God  which  it  is  the  first  object  of  the  atone- 
ment to  secure ;  then  our  whole  evangelical  system  is  weak- 
ened, God's  righteousness  is  ignored,  and  man  is  prac- 
tically put  in  place  of  God.  I  doubt  not  that  this  has  been 
the  effect,  in  Baptist  circles,  of  some  recent  journalism  and 
some  recent  teaching.  We  need  to  stay  this  incoming  tide 
of  anti-scriptural  theology.  We  can  do  so,  not  by  going 
back  to  the  old  mechanical  and  arbitrary  conceptions  of 
the  atonement,  but  by  going  forward  to  a  more  vital  appre- 
hension of  the  relation  of  the  race  to  Christ.  A  larger 
knowledge  of  Christ,  the  life  of  humanity,  will  enable  us  to 
hold  fast  the  objective  nature  of  the  atonement,  and  its 
necessity  as  grounded  in  the  holiness  of  God;  while  at  the 

i1 


same  time  we  appropriate  all  that  is  good  in  the  modem 
view  of  the  atonement,  as  the  final  demonstration  of  God's 
constraining  love  which  moves  men  to  repentance  and  sub- 
mission. 

I  perceive  some  change  in  our  ideas  of  Christian  fellow- 
C^^»  ship.  Our  fathers  lived  in  a  day  when  simple  faith  was  sub- 
iect  to  serious  disabilities.  The  establishments  frowned  upon 
dissent,  and  visited  it  with  pains  and  penalties.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  believers  in  the  Xew  Testament  doctrine  and 
polit}-  felt  that  they  must  come  out  from  what  they  regarded 
as  an  apostate  church.  They  could  have  no  sympathy  with 
those  who  held  back  the  truth  in  unrighteousness  and  per- 
secuted the  saints  of  God.  But  our  doctrine  has  leavened 
all  Christendom.  Scholarship  is  on  the  side  of  immersion. 
Infant  baptism  is  on  the  decline.  The  churches  that  once 
opposed  us  now  compliment  us  on  our  steadfastness  in  the 
faith  and  on  our  missionary  zeal.  There  is  a  growing  spirit- 
uality- in  these  churches,  which  prompts  them  to  extend  to 
us  hands  of  fellowship.  And  there  is  a  growing  sense 
among  us  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  wider  than  our  own 
membership,  and  that  loyalty-  to  our  Lord  requires  us  to 
recognize  his  presence  and  blessing  even  in  bodies  which 
we  do  not  regard  as  organized  in  complete  accordance  with 
the  Xew  Testament  model. 

If  I  am  asked  whether  Baptists  still  hold  to  restricted 
J^  communion.  I  answer  that  our  principle  has  not  changed, 
cfan  but  that  many  of  us  apply  the  principle  in  a  different  man- 
ner from  that  of  our  fathers.  We  belicA^e  that  baptism 
logically  precedes  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  birth  precedes  the 
taking  of  nourishment,  and  regeneration  precedes  sanctifica- 
tion.  We  believe  that  the  order  of  the  ordinances  is  an  im- 
portant point  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  itself  teaches 
Christian  doctrine.  Hence  we  proclaim  it  and  adhere  to  it. 
in  our  preaching  and  in  our  practice.  But  we  do  not  turn 
the  Lord's  Supper  into  a  judgment-seat,  or  turn  the  officers 
of  the  church  into  detectives.  We  teach  the  truth,  and  ex- 
pect that  the  truth  will  win  its  way.    We  are  courteous  to 

i8 


all  who  come  among  us;  and  expect  that  they  in  turn  will 
have  the  courtesy  to  respect  our  convictions  and  to  act  ac- 
cordingly. But  there  is  danger  here  that  we  may  break 
from  our  moorings  and  drift  into  indifferentism  with  regard 
to  the  ordinances.  The  recent  advocacy  of  open  church- 
membership  is  but  the  logical  consequence  of  a  previous  con- 
cession of  open  communion.  But  I  am  persuaded  that  this 
new  doctrine  is  confined  to  very  few  among  us.  The 
remedy  for  this  false  liberalism  is  to  be  found  in  that  same 
Christ  who  solves  for  us  all  other  problems.  It  is  this 
Christ  who  sets  the  solitary  in  families,  and  who  makes  of 
one  every  nation  that  dwells  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Christian  denominations  are  at  least  temporarily  his  appoint- 
ment. Loyalty  to  the  body  which  seems  to  us  best  to  repre- 
sent his  truth  is  also  loyalty  to  him.  Love  for  Christ  does  Unity 
not  involve  the  surrender  of  the  ties  of  family,  or  nation,  or  Empna- 
denomination,  but  only  consecrates  and  ennobles  them.  Yet 
Christ  is  King  in  Zion.  There  is  but  one  army  of  the  living 
God,  even  though  there  are  many  divisions.  We  can  em- 
phasize our  unity  with  other  Christian  bodies,  rather  than  the 
differences  between  us.  We  can  regard  them  as  churches 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  even  though  they  are  irregularly  consti- 
tuted. As  a  marriage  ceremony  may  be  valid,  even  though 
performed  without  a  license  and  by  an  unqualified  admin- 
istrator; and  as  an  ordination  may  be  valid,  even  though 
the  ordinary  laying-on  of  hands  be  omitted ;  so  the  or- 
dinance of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  administered  in  pedo- 
baptist  churches  may  be  valid,  though  irregular  in  its  ac- 
companiments and  antecedents.  Though  we  still  protest 
against  the  modem  perversions  of  the  New  Testament 
doctrine  as  to  the  subjects  and  the  mode  of  baptism,  we  hold 
with  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper  that  irregularity  is  not 
invalidity,  and  that  we  may  recognize  as  churches  even  those 
bodies  which  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  without  having 
been  baptized.  Our  faith  in  the  larger  Christ  is  bringing 
us  out  from  our  denominational  isolation  into  an  inspiring 

19 


recognition  of  our  oneness  with  the  universal  church  of  God 
throughout  the  world. 

There  have  been  changes  in  our  Baptist  view  of  the 
View  Scriptures.  When  the  Reformation  dislodged  the  Church 
^3l  from  the  place  of  ultimate  authority,  the  Bible  was  sub- 
stituted  for  the  Church.  It  was  forgotten  that  the  only  ulti- 
mate authority  is  Christ,  and  that  he  has  never  so  con- 
structed Scripture"  as  to  dispense  with  his  own  personal 
presence  and  the  teaching  of  his  Spirit.  Nowhere  does 
the  Bible  speak  of  itself  as  "the  word  of  God."  That 
phrase  designates  the  truth,  of  which  the  Bible  is  the  record. 
And  modern  investigation  is  teaching  us  that  there  is  a 
human  element  in  that  record;  it  has  grown  up  in  ways 
analogous  to  those  in  which  other  literatures  have  origin- 
ated ;  and  it  is  to  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  its  history. 
And  yet,  in  spite  of  imperfections,  its  authorship  is  divine, 
as  well  as  human ;  it  brings  us  a  divine  revelation ;  its  many 
biblia  constitute  one  Bible.  It  is  not  intended  to  teach 
physical  science  or  secular  history ;  but  it  can  lead  us 
to  Christ  and  the  truth.  When  taken  together,  and  in- 
terpreted by  the  same  Spirit  who  inspired  it,  it  is  able  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation. 

We  cannot,  even  if  we  would,  escape  or  ignore  the  results 
of  modern  criticism.  That  criticism  is  sometimes  skeptical  and 
destructive,  but  it  is  not  necessarily  so.  It  may  be,  and  it 
often  is,  constructive  and  illuminating,  and  in  that  measure 
it  is  only  a  new  means  by  which  Christ  himself  is  throw- 
ing light  upon  the  record  of  his  past  revelations  and  enabling 
us  the  Better  to  understand  them.  The  miraculous  element 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  the  New  Testament  the  virgin 
birth  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  are  only  made  more 
indisputable  facts  of  history,  when  they  are  shown  to  be  not 
violations  of  law  but  extraordinary  workings  of  law;  and 
inspiration  becomes  only  more  credible,  when  it  is  recognized 
as  an  intensification  of  natural  powers  under  the  special 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  But  in  this  new  method  of 
thought  there  lie  obvious  dangers  of  exaggeration ;  and  in 

20 


some  quarters  we  may  observe  a  tendency  to  sink  the  divine 
in  tfie  human,  and  to  divest  the  Bible  of  all  authority.  Let 
us  beware  of  this  tendency,  for  our  Baptist  doctrine  and 
polity  are  founded  upon  the  New  Testament.  If  this  New 
Testament  is  not  the  common  law  of  the  church,  then  our 
separate  existence  as  a  denomination  is  impertinence  and 
schism.  How  shall  we  steer  our  bark  so  as  to  clear  both 
the  Scylla  of  bibliolatry  and  the  Charybdis  of  rationalism? 
Ah,  there  is  ever  the  one  and  sufficient  answer:  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday  and  to-day  and  forever.  He  is 
the  only  ultimate  authority;  and  he  abides,  by  his  omnipo- 
tent Spirit,  in  his  people,  opening  to  them  the  Scriptures 
even  as  he  did  to  those  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus, 
showing  them  the  things  concerning  himself,  enabling  them 
to  compare  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  and  so  leading 
them  gradually  but  surely  into  all  the  truth. 

III.      THE    OUTLOOK 

And  now,  last  of  all,  with  this  past  history  behind  us,  and 
with  this  present  attitude  in  respect  to  faith  and  practice,  Building: 
what  is  our  outlook  toward  the  future  ?  Will  Baptist  prin-  "'^ 
ciples  stand  the  test  of  advancing  intelligence,  and  of  the 
tremendous  march  of  culture  and  civilization  ?  I  reply : 
They  are  the  only  principles  that  can  stand  the  test.  For 
they  build  on  Christ,  the  solid  Rock,  and  on  that  conception 
of  a  spiritual  church,  against  which  he  himself  has  said 
that  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail.  In  that  one  con- 
ception of  a  spiritual  church,  we  find  our  strength,  our 
warning,  and  our  inspiration.  If  we  hold  to  that,  we  cannot 
fail  to  grow  and  to  triumph.  We  may  be  very  weak  and 
ignorant  in  other  respects,  but  this  principle  ensures  success. 
When  I  think  how  little  Peter  and  James  and  John,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Jordan  at  the  beginning  of  Christ's  ministry, 
knew  about  Christian  doctrine,  I  am  amazed  that  they  should 
have  been  counted  among  his  disciples.  If  you  had  asked 
them  about  the  deity  of  Christ  or  about  his  atonement,  they 

21 


would  not  have  understood  the  meaning  of  your  words.  But 
they  heard  his  command :  "Follow  me !"  and  they  obeyed. 
In  that  act  of  obedience  was  latent  the  whole  Christian 
scheme.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  deity  of  Christ?  But 
what  right  had  they  to  submit  themselves  unreservedly  to 
him,  if  he  were  a  mere  man  like  themselves?  Their  follow- 
ing him  was  an  implicit  and  unconscious  confession  of  his 
deity.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  atonement  of  Christ  ?  But 
were  they  not  conscious  sinners,  who  had  submitted  to 
John's  baptism  of  repentance  and  of  faith  in  him  who  was 
to  come,  and,  in  following  Christ,  did  they  not  show  that 
they  looked  to  him  as  the  promised  Messiah,  the  Lamb  of 
God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world  ?  All  Christian 
doctrine  was  implicit  in  their  obedience.  That  doctrine  was 
vague  and  undefined,  unconscious  and  unformulated,  but  it 
was  none  the  less  real.  It  was  like  solid  matter  in  a  state 
of  solution,  so  transparent  as  to  be  invisible,  yet  ready  at 
a  shock  to  be  precipitated  and  crystallized  into  definite  forms 
of  belief,  as  when  Peter  afterward  made  his  great  confes- 
sion :  "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  son  of  the  living  God." 
So  our  Baptist  principle  of  a  spiritual  church  contains, 
The  latently  and  logically,  all  the  substance  of  Christianity,  and 

Conquering  j^.  j^^^g  power  to  regenerate  the  world.  That  is,  it  has  all  the 
power  that  truth  alone  can  possess.  But  we  need  ever  to 
remember  that  truth,  apart  from  Christ,  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
is  an  abstraction,  and  not  a  power.  Here  is  the  danger  of 
some  modern  theories  of  Christian  education.  They  give  us 
statistics,  to  show  that  the  age  of  puberty  is  the  age  of 
strongest  religious  impressions;  and  the  inference  is  drawn 
that  conversion  is  nothing  but  a  natural  phenomenon,  a 
regular  stage  of  development.  The  free  will,  and  the  evil 
bent  of  that  will,  are  forgotten,  and  the  absolute  dependence 
of  perverse  human  nature  upon  the  regenerating  Spirit  of 
God.  The  age  of  puberty  is  the  age  of  strongest  religious 
impressions  ?  Yes,  but  it  is  also  the  age  of  strongest  artistic 
and  social  and  sensuous  impressions,  and  only  a  new  birth 
from  above  can  lead  the  soul  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 


God.  Our  people  have  believed  in  the  converting  power  of 
God;  and  just  in  proportion  as  they  have  given  and  prayed 
and  labored,  the  Spirit  has  been  poured  out  upon  them  and 
their  witness  to  the  truth  has  been  followed  by  great  in- 
gatherings. 

When  we  think  of  the  proper  expression  of  the  truth,  as 
of  importance  only  second  to  the  having  of  the  truth  to  Demand 

be  expressed,  may  we  not  learn  some  lessons  from  those  (?'°^'^"^ 
...  ...  .  ,  ,  .      .  Worship 

denommations  which  seem  of  late  to  be  outstnppmg  us  in 

the  race?  It  is  the  Disciples  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Episcopalians  on  the  other,  who  have  drawn  most  upon 
our  numbers,  especially  in  the  older  and  more  cultivated 
portions  of  our  country.  I  think  we  cannot  doubt  that,  as 
education  advances,  there  is  a  demand  for  decorum  in  wor- 
ship and  attention  to  outward  order,  which  the  earlier  stages 
of  religious  life  tend  to  neglect.  The  aesthetic  instinct  may 
be  overcultivated,  and  may  become  a  hindrance  to  piety. 
But,  with  increasing  culture,  there  is  a  growing  disposition 
to  express  religious  thought  in  impressive  forms.  The  arts 
of  music  and  of  architecture  may  become  helpers  to  re- 
ligion. The  Puritan  worship  was  bare  and  hard.  It  took 
little  account  of  the  love  of  God  or  of  the  beauty  of  his 
works.  The  ritualistic  churches  of  our  day  are  making 
headway,  partly  at  least  because  they  clothe  the  truth  in  a 
fitting  garb,  and  appeal  to  the  heart  as  well  as  to  the  head. 
Taste  is  a  divine  gift ;  the  bride  in  the  Messianic  psalm  had 
garments  of  needlework ;  the  New  Testament  appropriates 
all  that  was  vital  and  beautiful  in  the  Old ;  the  worship  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  has  in  it  a  responsive  and  even  a  liturgi- 
cal element.  We  give  over  to  the  minister  too  much  of 
our  public  service;  he  should  be  rather  the  leader  of  the 
congregation.  We  can  keep  our  young  people  more  easily, 
if  we  add  to  our  worship  more  of  dignity  and  impressiveness, 
and  if  we  make  our  places  of  worship  beautiful  as  well  as 
homelike.  Christ  is  the  Master  of  the  universe ;  he  will 
make  even  the  arts  to  serve  him ;  regard  for  outward  form 
is  not  incompatible  with  the  humble  and  contrite  heart,  and 

23 


with  the  indwelling  in  that  heart  of  the  living  Redeemer. 
Our  Baptist  concern  that  the  religious  spirit  properly  ex- 
press itself  in  the  constitution  of  the  church  and  in  its  or- 
dinances may  well  lead  us  further,  namely,  to  making  that 
church  and  those  ordinances  thoroughly  tasteful  and  at- 
tractive. 

Yet  I  confess  that  my  greatest  concern  for  the  future  is 
hi  Oi°**K  ^^^  concern  lest  we  should  cease  to  be  a  untnessing  church, 
and  so  should  cease  to  be  a  true  church  of  Christ.  For  a 
spiritual  church  means,  as  we  have  seen,  two  things:  first, 
the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  regenerate  souls ; 
and  secondly,  the  outward  expression  of  their  union  with 
Christ  in  his  death  and  resurrection.  We  express  our  re- 
lation to  Christ  by  the  New  Testament  organization  and  or- 
dinances. But  we  need  also  to  express  it  by  holy  lives,  and 
by  actual  oral  testimony.  To  a  considerable  extent,  and 
especially  in  our  older  and  more  educated  communities,  we 
have  fallen  into  the  sacerdotal  notion  that  our  ministers 
are  to  do  our  preaching  for  us ;  forgetting  that,  in  the 
early  church  when  Christians  were  scattered  abroad,  they, 
and  not  the  apostles,  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word. 
Not  sermons,  but  individual  voices  of  private  members  of 
the  church,  are  to  evangelize  the  world.  When  the  Romans 
shortened  their  swords,  they  lengthened  their  territories. 
Wherever  and  whenever  we  have  done  this  hand  to  hand 
work,  our  increase  has  been  great.  When  we  cease  to  be- 
lieve that  men  around  us  are  lost,  cease  in  private  to  urge 
them  to  come  to  Christ,  the  glory  will  depart  from  us.  The 
church  that  ceases  to  be  evangelistic  will  soon  cease  to  be 
evangelical ;  and  the  church  that  ceases  to  be  evangelical 
will  soon  cease  to  exist. 

Why   is    it   that   those    Mediterranean   lands    where   the 
Hwt  be     gospel  was  first  preached  have  been  given  over  to  infidelity 
Hlsdonary  and  to  barbarism  ?  Why  has  the  candlestick  that  once  burned 
so  brightly  been  removed   out   of  its  place?     Simply  be- 
cause it  quenched   its  light   and   refused  to   shine ;    simply 
because  it  shut  in  its  rays,  like  a  dark  lantern,  and  had  no 

24 


compassion  upon  those  who  were  sitting  in  darkness.  While 
the  early  churches  were  missionary  churches  and  sent  the 
gospel  abroad,  they  continued  to  prosper  at  home.  When, 
like  the  ancient  Jews,  they  came  to  fancy  that  the  oracles 
of  God  were  given  to  them  only  for  their  individual  and 
national  salvation,  God  scattered  them  through  the  world, 
and  gave  their  possessions  to  others.  And  so  it  will  be 
with  us.  If  we  settle  down  in  ease  and  idleness,  content  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  Christianity  without  giving  our  Chris- 
tianity to  others,  we  too  will  be  dealt  with  as  were  those 
wicked  husbandmen  who  failed  to  render  returns  to  the 
ovner  and  whose  vineyard  was  taken  from  them. 

We    have  been  a  democratic  people,  and  the  masses  have  jhe 

flocked  to  us.     Now  that  we  are  gaining  wealth  and  social  Christian 
.....  ,  ,    ,,   r  i  ,  *  FubUc 

position,  there  is  danger  that  we  shall  forget  the  poor  and  Spirited 

the  oppressed.  We  need  more  fully  to  recognize,  not  only  Citizen 
our  unity  with  all  Christians,  but  our  unity  with  all  men. 
We  are  our  brothers'  keepers,  and  nothing  human  should 
be  foreign  to  us.  The  Jaisse::-faire  or  let-alone  principle  is 
only  a  surviving  selfishness  and  barbarism.  We  are  bound 
to  moralize  competition,  and  to  bring  men  out  from  their 
isolation  into  community  and  brotherhood  in  Christ.  I  do 
not  mean  that  churches  should  take  sides  in  labor  agitations 
or  in  political  campaigns.  But  I  do  mean  that  church-mem- 
bers should  listen  to  the  exceeding  bitter  cry  of  the  sub- 
merged classes ;  should  demand  protective  legislation  for 
those  to  whom  heartless  capitalists  will  not  grant  a  living 
wage.  In  the  saloon  that  entices  to  drink,  in  the  crime 
which  that  drink  causes,  and  in  the  lawlessness  which 
lynches  the  criminal,  Christian  men  should  see  their  Mas- 
ter's call  to  stand  for  the  weak  against  the  strong.  We 
have  been  losing  ground  because  we  have  been  too  intent 
upon  our  own  concerns  to  care  for  the  interests  of  our 
neighbor.  A  true  Baptist  should  be  a  man  of  public  spirit. 
He  should  not  only  strive  to  rescue  individual  men  from 
the  slough  of  vice,  but  he  should  devise  measures  for  drain- 
ing that  slough  and  making  that  vice  impossible.     In  other 

25 


words,  he  should  labor  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  society,  as  well  as  in  the  church. 

Our  faith,  moreover,  is  measured  by  our  giving.  Judged 
Faith  by  our  numbers  and  by  our  wealth,  our  Baptist  gifts,  how- 
U^iM  ^^^^  large  they  may  seem,  are  pitiably  small.  Our  total 
gifts  to  home  and  foreign  missions  are  not  one  cent  a  week 
for  each  member.  The  church  is  like  Dives  in  the  parable, 
clothed  in  fine  linen  and  faring  sumptuously  every  day, 
while  the  sick  and  hungry  world  at  its  doors,  like  Lazarus, 
receives  only  the  crumbs  from  the  bountifully  provided 
table.  In  the  time  of  the  great  Indian  famine  there  were 
relief  agents  to  whom  were  intrusted  great  sums  of  money 
with  which  to  feed  the  hungry,  but  who  kept  that  money 
for  themselves,  while  hundreds  of  starving  creatures  died 
under  their  very  eyes.  God  has  given  us  wealth,  that  we 
may  relieve  the  spiritual  famine  of  the  world.  He  has  made 
us  stewards  of  his  bounty ;  and  for  every  dollar  intrusted 
to  us  he  will  require  us  to  give  account.  Shall  we  keep  for 
ourselves,  or  spend  upon  our  own  pleasures,  what  belongs 
to  the  perishing?  What  should  we  think  of  the  professed 
Christian  who,  when  the  bread  was  passed  to  him  at  the 
Lord's  Supper,  should  keep  it  all  for  himself,  and  refuse 
to  pass  it  on  ?  When  the  Lord  multiplies  the  loaves  to  feed 
the  five  thousand,  shall  the  apostles  keep  the  loaves  to  them- 
selves, and  pile  them  up  till  they  form  such  a  barricade  that 
the  five  thousand  are  hid  from  sight?  And  shall  John  be 
excused  from  distributing,  simply  because  Peter  will  not 
do  his  part  ?  Ah,  my  brethren,  this  is  a  matter  between  each 
one  of  us  and  Christ !  Each  one  of  us  is  charged  with 
maintaining  and  extending  a  spiritual  church,  by  our  giving, 
as  well  as  by  our  witnessing  and  teaching.  And  not  our 
brethren,  but  only  Christ,  is  our  Example,  our  Lawgiver, 
and  our  Judge. 

For  he  cometh,  for  he  cometh,  to  judge  the  earth !  The 
judgment  of  nations  takes  place  in  time;  for  nations  be- 
long only  to  the  present  order  of  things,  and  have  no  eternal 
existence.     Denominations  also  are  judged  in  this  world ; 

26 


since  the  divisions  between  them  are  incidents  of  our  pres- 
ent imperfect  knowledge,  and  when  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come  then  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  Mean- 
time, we  are  held  individually  responsible  for  the  forward 
march  of  the  denomination  which  to  us  most  fully  em- 
bodies and  represents  the  truth  of  Christ.  A  retrograde 
movement  of  that  denomination  may  be  the  consequence  of 
our  illiberality,  our  laxity,  our  indifference.  We  cannot 
say  with  the  heedless  French  monarch :  "After  me  the 
deluge!"  The  judgment  which  comes  to  a  denomination  in 
time  comes  to  the  members  of  that  denomination  in  eternity. 
If  we  confess  Christ  and  his  truth  before  men,  Christ  will 
confess  us  before  his  Father  and  before  the  holy  angels. 
If  we  deny  him,  he  also  will  deny  us. 

The  faith  in  a  second  coming  of  Christ  has  lost  its  hold  The 
upon  many  Baptists  in  our  day.  But  it  still  serves  to  stimu-  ^'^f? 
late  and  admonish  the  great  body,  and  we  can  never  dis- 
pense with  its  solemn  and  mighty  influence.  Christ  comes, 
it  is  true,  in  Pentecostal  revivals  and  in  destructions  of 
Jerusalem,  in  Reformation  movements  and  in  political  up- 
heavals. But  these  are  only  precursors  of  another  and 
literal  and  final  return  of  Christ,  to  punish  the  wicked  and 
to  complete  the  salvation  of  his  people.  That  day  for 
which  all  other  days  are  made  will  be  a  joyful  day  for  those 
who  have  fought  a  good  fight  and  have  kept  the  faith.  Let 
us  look  for  and  hasten  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God.  The 
Jacobites  of  Scotland  never  ceased  their  labors  and  sacri- 
fices for  their  king's  return.  Their  passionate  devotion  to 
his  cause  led  hundreds  of  them  to  exile  and  to  death.  They 
never  tasted  wine,  without  pledging  their  absent  prince; 
they  never  joined  in  song,  without  renewing  their  oaths  of 
allegiance.  In  many  a  prison  cell  and  on  many  a  battle 
field  they  rang  out  the  strain: 
"Follow  thee,  follow  thee,  wha  wadna  follow  thee? 

Long  hast  thou  lo'ed  and  trusted  us  fairly : 
Chairlie,  Chairlie,  wha  wadna  follow  thee? 

King  o'  the  Highland  hearts,  bonnie  Prince  Chairlie !" 

27 


So  they  sang,  so  they  invited  him,  until  at  last  he  came.  But 
that  longing  for  the  day  when  Charles  should  come  to  his 
own  again  was  faint  and  weak  compared  with  the  longing 
of  true  Christian  hearts  for  the  coming  of  their  King. 
Charles  came,  only  to  suffer  defeat,  and  to  bring  shame  to 
his  country.  But  Christ  will  come,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
world's  long  sorrow,  to  give  triumph  to  the  cause  of  truth, 
to  bestow  everlasting  reward  upon  the  faithful. 

"Even  so.  Lord  Jesus,  come! 
Hope  of  all  our  hopes  the  sum. 
Take  thy  waiting  people  home ! 

"Long,  so  long,  the  groaning  earth, 
Cursed  with  war  and  flood  and  dearth, 
Sighs  for  its  redemption-birth. 

"Therefore  come,  we  daily  pray, 
Bring  the  resurrection-day. 
Wipe  creation's  curse  away !" 

I  rest  my  Baptist  faith  upon  the  New  Testament  demand 
The  Basis  for  a  spiritual  church ;  and  I  rest  my  Baptist  hope  upon  the 
and  Horc  ^^istoric  fact  of  our  past  faithfulness  to  this  fundamental 
principle.  "If  any  man  serve  me,  him  will  my  Father 
honor,"  These  words  are  as  true  of  the  denomination,  as 
they  are  of  the  individual  Christian.  And  what  is  meant  by 
serving  Christ,  our  Lord  himself  intimates  when  he  requires 
that  "all  men  should  honor  the  Son,  even  as  they  honor  the 
Father."  We  have  tried  to  honor  Christ,  and  Qirist  has 
honored  us.  Our  future  as  a  denomination,  if  we  are  but 
faithful  to  Christ's  word  and  to  our  past  history,  is  as  sure 
as  the  promises  of  God.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  our 
principles  are  correct,  so  much  as  it  is  a  question  whether  we 
are  true  to  our  principles.  I  believe  that  the  great  body  of 
Baptists  still  are  true,  and  therefore  I  believe  that  our 
denominational  outlook  is  still  promising.    Though  we  have 

28 


suffered  a  comparative  check  in  our  onward  movement  and 
our  increase  is  not  what  it  once  was,  the  very  knowledge 
of  the  fact  which  this  council  of  war  gives  to  us  may,  by 
the  help  of  Christ's  Spirit,  be  made  a  stimulus  to  such  labor 
and  liberality  and  prayer,  that  we  shall  press  forward  as 
never  before.  We  were  once  but  a  little  flock,  yet  it  was  the 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  us  the  kingdom.  If  we  are 
only  meek,  we  shall  yet  inherit  the  earth. 

If  we  are  to  meet  our  King  in  peace,  we  must  do  the  The  Open 
work  of  the  immediate  present.  And  what  an  opportunity  Baptist 
stretches  before  us !  Here  in  this  land  is  the  greatest  field,  Principle 
and  the  most  widely  opened  door,  that  the  Baptist  principle 
has  ever  known.  Never  before  in  human  history  was  so 
vast  an  area  devoted  to  free  trade,  unrestricted  by  inter- 
state duties  and  taxes.  Never  before  in  human  history  was 
so  vast  a  population  possessed  of  the  means  of  education. 
Never  before  in  human  history  was  there  so  complete  and 
successful  a  system  of  self-government.  Our  Baptist  faith 
and  polity  inculcate  the  right  and  the  duty  of  private  judg- 
ment, and  so  commend  themselves  to  intelligent  freemen. 
We  believe  in  democracy,  and  we  are  fitted  to  succeed  in  a 
democratic  country.  We  ought  to  take  possession  of  Amer- 
ica in  the  name  of  Christ.  But  more  than  this.  We  are 
citizens  of  the  world.  We  have  access  to  the  other  nations 
as  never  before.  The  industrial  and  educational  and  demo- 
cratic leadership  of  America  gives  us  advantage  over  every 
other  people,  in  the  conduct  of  religious  work.  American 
Baptists  ought  to  girdle  the  whole  earth  with  their  mis- 
sions. Let  past  success  embolden  us  to  worldwide  effort  \ 
The  principle  for  which  we  contend  is  divine  and  eternal. 
Christ  himself  is  with  us.  He  will  not  fail  nor  be  dis- 
couraged, till  he  has  made  his  spiritual  church  contermin- 
ous with  the  whole  human  race  for  which  he  died. 

Not  many  days  ago  President  Roosevelt  touched  a  gold  Faith  and 

button  in  the  East  Room  of  the  White  House  at  Washing-  f/^^"  the 

Unifying' 
ton,    and    set    in    motion    all    the    machinery    of    the   great  Forces 

World's  Fair  at  St.  Louis.    How  came  it  that  a  single  man 

29 


of  finite  powers  could  bridge  over  that  great  interval  of 
space  and  could  accomplish  results  which  a  thousand  giants 
could  not  produce?  Only  because  of  the  all-encompassing, 
all-pervading  forces  of  electricity  and  magnetism  which 
bind  together,  not  only  St.  Louis  and  Washington,  but  all 
places  and  all  times.  These  forces  are  but  other  names  for 
the  intelligence  and  will  of  God.  The  God  in  whom  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being  connects  all  human  souls 
as  well  as  all  material  things,  and,  weak  and  ignorant  as  we 
are.  the  least  of  us  may  be  mighty  through  God  to  the  pull- 
ing down  of  strongholds.  God  has  invested  each  one  of  us 
who  believe,  with  authority,  greater  than  that  of  President 
Roosevelt,  by  faith  and  prayer  to  touch  the  springs  of 
human  action,  and  to  inaugurate  movements  in  human  his- 
tory compared  with  which  the  starting  of  that  machinery 
at  St.  Louis  was  but  child's  play.  We  are  not  presidents, 
but  we  are  more  than  that — we  are  kings  and  priests  unto 
God,  instruments  through  whom  Christ  works,  endowed 
with  his  power.  Even  the  grain  of  faith  that  is  like  the 
mustard-seed  for  smallness  can  remove  obstacles  that  stand 
like  mountains  in  the  way  of  progress  of  Christ's  king- 
dom. Let  us  then  betake  ourselves  to  prayer  as  well  as 
to  labor.    And  let  us  begin  here  and  now.     Let  us  pray ! 

PRAYER 

Lord  Jesus,  if  we  have  faltered  and  suffered  defeat,  it  is 
because  «v  have  forgotten  Thee.  We  repent  of  our  un- 
belief and  sin,  and  we  come  back  to  Thee.  Reveal  Thyself 
to  us  once  more  as  God  omnipotent,  with  Thy  people  al- 
way  even  to  the  end  of  the  world;  as  God  omniscient,  with 
Thine  attention  concentrated  everywhere  and  even  upon  us; 
OS  Go\d  omnipotent,  with  infinite  power  ready  to  act  in  our 
time  of  need.  Thy  holiness  demands  that  we  recognise 
Thy  presence.  Thy  knowledge.  Thy  power.  Thy  love  as- 
sures us  that  Thou  wilt  give  even  the  faith  which  qualities 
us  to  appropriate  Thy  gifts.     What  tve  cannot  do  of  our- 

30 


selves  Thou  canst  eatable  us  to  do,  by  the  bestowment  of 
Thy  Holy  Spirit.  We  appeal  to  Th^ee  to  help  us.  Our 
fathers  trusted  in  Thee:  they  trusted,  and  Thou  didst  de- 
liver them.  They  bore  Thy  cross,  and  suffered  death,  be- 
lieving that  their  death  should  be  made  the  means  of 
establishing  Thy  truth.  Remember  their  prayers,  we  be- 
seech Thee.  Remember  Thy  faithful  ones,  who  in  all  Thy 
churches  still  call  upon  Thy  name  and  witness  for  Thee.  Look 
dowii  from  heaven,  and  behold,  and  visit  this  vine,  and  the 
stock  which  Thy  right  hand  planted,  and  the  branch  which 
Thou  madest  strong  for  Thyself.  So  shall  we  not  go  back 
from  Thee:  quicken  us,  and  we  will  call  upon  Thy  name. 
Turn  us  again,  O  Jehovah  Jesus;  cause  Thy  face  to  shine, 
and  we  shall  be  saved.  Fulfill  Thy  promise,  by  giving  to  us 
here  and  now  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  by  sending  us  out,  indi- 
vidually and  collectively,  empowered  to  proclaim  Thy  gospel 
in  Sikh  a  way  that,  as  of  old,  men  maxy  be  moved  to  surren- 
der themselves  to  Thee,  to  lead  holy  and  unworldly  lives, 
and  to  labor  and  give  for  the  triumph  of  Thy  cause.  Bring 
the  resurrection  of  faith  and  love  which  Thou  hast  promisM. 
Make  Thy  servants  again  willing  to  die  for  Thee,  nay,  to  live 
for  Thee  at  home,  or  to  go  for  Thee,  if  Thou  dost  bid,  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Bring  again  the  days  of  great 
ingatherings ;  show  the  scorners  and  th\e  faint  hearted  that 
Thou  art  mighty  to  save;  set  up  Thy  throne  where  Satan 
now  rules,  Thou  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the  earth!  0  Thou 
who  didst  love  Thy  church  and  give  Thyself  for  it,  be  not  far 
from  us;  for  if  Thou  be  far  from  us,  vue  shall  be  as  those 
who  go  down  into  the  pit.  Make  Thy  church  what  Thou 
didst  design  it  to  be,  the  fulness  of  him  thai  filleth  all  in  all. 
For  Thou  art  the  Son  of  the  living  God;  all  authority  in 
heaven  cmd  in  earth  has  been  given  unto  Thee;  to  Thee 
equally  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit  we  give  honor, 
and  praise,  and  glory,  and  blessing;  and  in  Thy  name,  O 
Christ,  we  ask  and  offer  all.    Amen. 


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